In U.S. religion the Golden Rule rules, Obama suggests

Updated 10:03 pm, Friday, May 11, 2012

President Barack Obama speaks at the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies dinner Tuesday, May 8, 2012, in Washington.

President Barack Obama speaks at the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies dinner Tuesday, May 8, 2012, in Washington.

Photo: AP

In U.S. religion the Golden Rule rules, Obama suggests

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As pundits and politicians struggle to divine the political fallout from President Barack Obama's sudden endorsement of same-sex marriage, one thing has become clear: The Golden Rule invoked by Obama to explain his change of heart is the closest thing Americans have to a common religious law.

And that has important implications beyond the battle for gay rights. In fact, one of the most striking aspects of Obama's revelation Wednesday that he and his wife, Michelle, support marriage rights for gays and lesbians is that he invoked their Christian faith to support his views. In past years, Obama — as many believers still do — had cited his religious beliefs to oppose gay marriage.

Obama told ABC News that he and the first lady “are both practicing Christians and obviously this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others but, you know, when we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it's also the Golden Rule, you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated.”

Obama has frequently mentioned the Golden Rule or that general idea when speaking about how his faith shapes his policies, and he can point to chapter and verse to back up his views.

Jesus twice invoked the Golden Rule in the Gospels, in a phrase that is often rendered “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” And Jesus is cited three times boiling down all of God's law to what is known as the Great Commandment, a dual injunction to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart” and to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

In everyday life, believers can invoke the Golden Rule in order to respect others, like gays and lesbians, while maintaining their particular religious views, which may or may not endorse homosexual relationships.

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While this tendency toward toleration may not translate immediately into legislative or judicial victories for gay rights, the shift to social acceptance is broad and swift and, as even many religious conservatives concede, probably inexorable.

The Golden Rule template is also one that experts say will likely one day pave the way for greater acceptance of marginalized groups like Muslims, just as it did in past generations for Catholics and Jews. Mormons like Mitt Romney already seem to be benefiting, as their visibility grows and more Americans see them as living upstanding lives.

Whether Obama will benefit from his invocation of the Golden Rule remains a point of intense political speculation. That's no surprise, given that the nation remains divided on gay rights, and culture war issues can often be used as stand-ins for airing other grievances.

But the White House seemed to recognize the power of the Golden Rule as it scrambled to stage-manage the potential public relations crisis.

As the president's interview was being aired, the White House sent Democrats a list of talking points that featured this exhortation: “In the end, the values that the president cares most deeply about is how we treat other people.”

The memorandum was supposed to be confidential, but Obama's aides could have simply opened up the Bible, or asked most any American believer, and found the same advice.